The Peacekeepers. Books 1 - 3.

by Ricky Sides

  ***

  Tom Whitmore’s plans had been altered drastically due to the losses of both personnel and equipment during the one-day conflict with the peacekeepers. He no longer thought it possible to take over the country with his small army. However, he had decided that he really didn’t need to take over an entire country to be happy. A single state would do. He’d just let the country fall apart and carve out an empire in one state, molding that kingdom to suit himself. He no longer thought it would be prudent to go to South Carolina. The peacekeepers were aware of his connections to that state and would doubtlessly go there seeking him eventually. If they arrived before he was ready, then they could disrupt his plans yet again. Therefore, he decided to go up to Salina Kansas instead. There were some assets in that state which would prove to be of great use if the peacekeepers ever come looking for him. And if a man was about to make himself a king among men, then Kansas was a nice place to set up that Kingdom.

  There was resistance to his invasion at first. His men quenched the fires of that resistance in the blood of the resistance fighters. The army moved west through the state, ruthlessly killing everyone who dared to oppose them. Along the way, numerous men joined Tom’s army. They were Marauders, who liked what they were seeing and decided to join forces with the would-be King of Kansas. It made no difference to them whether they called their leader boss or king so long as they were included in a fair share of the spoils of conquest, and Tom made sure that everyone who joined him got a fair share.

  Tom stopped on his push through Kansas in the city of Salina. He had reached the city where he would form the heart of his kingdom. Tom had his men search several key areas in that region of the country and secure everything predator oriented. He had decided that the best defense against the peacekeepers was a defense that utilized drones and the predator was vastly superior to the drones employed by the peacekeepers. Its hellfire missiles would be able to deal with the tanks that the peacekeepers had stolen from Tom and the stinger missiles should be able to shoot down the troublesome peacekeeper flagship.

  It took Tom’s men months to locate the drones and transfer them, along with their accessories, to the airport in Salina. It took them another few months to learn to operate and properly maintain the systems. They accomplished this by examining the database of computers located at the locations where they’d found the equipment and ascertaining the addresses of anyone with experience in the program. When Tom’s men kicked in the doors to the people’s homes and swarmed inside, they found most of the homes were empty. However, they did manage to locate a few people with predator experience and those people they forced to help get the program back up and running. Tom’s men accomplished that task by torturing the families of the former program experts until their will to resist was broken.

  By now, Tom Whitmore had begun demanding his men refer to him as King Tomas the First. Tom sent out teams to numerous airports with instructions to secure every drop of aviation fuel that could be located. He also had his men examine the various aircraft that were available in the areas to which they traveled. Several attack helicopters were located and though it took a great deal of time to do so, men were located who would be able to make them airworthy again and teach the pilots among Tom’s men to utilize the helicopters. They used the same means of persuasion on the men that they’d utilized to perfect their predator drone program.

  In addition, Tom sent teams to locate stinger missiles and several units were indeed located. Many were the shoulder-fired units and several were found that could be used by the attack helicopters.

  Men from the city of Salina were forced to help by providing labor, though they were not enslaved. Tom’s reasons for not going to the extreme of enslaving the men were that slaves had to be fed, clothed, housed, and medical attention provided. It suited his purposes just fine for the city to provide the labor that he needed under duress without him having to worry with the logistics of taking care of their physical needs. The forced labor of a thousand men working every day hardened the center of Tom’s kingdom as slowly but surely, Tom and his men, along with their forced labor, created a layered defensive position that Tom felt confident the peacekeepers wouldn’t be able to destroy.

  The very heart of his kingdom was a series of buildings on or near the airport. Those buildings were hardened by the forced labor who worked building forms and mixing and pouring concrete defensive positions around the major buildings where his loyal retainers would live. Of course, the king’s residence took top priority. Tom selected the Traveler’s Inn hotel for his small but luxuriant castle. With seventy-two rooms, the three-story hotel was opulent, and Tom held audience with his top men in the boardroom setting. He found the plush red office chairs inside to be regal enough to suit his royal presence. Tom permitted his best men to dwell in the castle with him. Of course he needed servants to wait on him as befitted a king, so he had his men travel to other parts of the state and recruit servants. He wisely forbade them to recruit among the local population, which would only serve to foment rebellion. These servants were recruited by simply going to other cities in the state and kidnapping women who would serve as the house cleaners and servants. These women were enslaved.

  When the defensive positions were ready, Tom ordered the men to begin installing the machinegun nests in the strategic locations that they had worked out in planning sessions in his council room.

  During the same period of time that the peacekeepers were closing down the facility in Millbrae, Tom and his men were putting the final changes on their defenses.

  ***

  Pol saw to the unloading of the scrap alloy and supervised the storage of the various materials in neat rows, with similarly sized materials grouped together in his warehouse sized subterranean workshop. He knew he needed to decide soon which of the options he would make use of in putting the precious alloy to good use. He’d thought of several and he knew that his assistants had thought of others. He did know of one use to which he intended to put the material. He planned some modifications for the battle bikes, but that use would require a small percentage of the available scrap.

  Pol spent the remainder of that day preparing his workshop for the labor that would be required to complete the rest of the drones. His industrious assistants had already installed the battery systems, so that much of the work was out of the way. He planned to complete that project within a week and move on to his next.

  Later that evening, his assistants presented their ideas. One was a small globe about fist sized for reconnaissance missions where discovery must be avoided. Pol considered that idea but informed the assistant that although such a design would be a wonderful utilization of the scrap material, it wasn’t feasible because the miniaturization of the components to the degree required was beyond their capability. The other suggestion was a combination troop and drone transport, and an aerial battleship. That idea intrigued Pol.

  Pol considered the scrap they had available. The centerpiece of that scrap that had held the most value in Pol’s eyes, as they had prepared to close down the facility, was a large skid of four by ten foot sheets. The crate that contained those sheets had been damaged in transit to the Carwell facility. The rough log chains used to secure the skid to the back of the trailer had broken through the wood in two places on one end. The chains had damaged the last six to fifteen inches of the alloy, which meant that the company couldn’t use the sheets in their presses. Patricia had found entries in the computer that informed them that Carwell Industries had notified the government officials that the shipment had been damaged. They had explained that to attempt to use the damaged alloy in their presses would risk damaging the very expensive punch and die sets. The government had expedited another shipment of material and promised to pick up the damaged container, but they had failed to pick up the expensive alloy prior to the night of the earthquakes. There were three hundred sheets of that material and Pol had been determined to salvage every single sheet.

  Working wi
th the experienced factory workers and seeking their advice, Pol had been told what the best solution to the problem would entail. First, the crate would be disassembled carefully. Once all of the wood was out of the way, the workers could gently work the sheets free from the top of the stack one at a time. This would require carefully working the damaged surfaces with hammers and at times even crowbars. Once a sheet of the alloy was worked free, it would be placed upon the table of a large bumper press that would flatten the defect area enough to go under the guards and hold down hydraulics of a large squaring shear. The defect area would then be trimmed off and the remaining sheet would be major defect free, though all of that handling would leave scratches on the surface.

  Pol had instructed the workers to begin the process and to cut them a uniform eight feet long. Sadly, they couldn’t use the material to manufacture more drones, because that required ten-foot long sheets. That project had taken two days, for great care was taken to damage the surface of the alloy as little as possible.

  Pol thought of those sheets as he stared at the assistant’s plan. Taking a notepad and running the mathematic calculations Pol said, “It’s a good plan, but unfortunately that design would require twice the available material that we possess.”

  “Twice as much? What did I do wrong?” asked the shocked assistant.

  “At a guess I’d say you forgot to allow for the interior walls. Remember the ship would have to have both an inner bulkhead and an outer hull,” Pol pointed out.

  “I thought we could use other materials for the inner bulkhead. It wouldn’t help with the power accumulation because it is inside the ship,” the assistant noted.

  “Alas we had that same thought as a means of cutting the cost of the prototype but all possible substitutions simply weighed too much or lacked the tensile strength necessary to perform as needed. I fear that the scale models have contributed to a lack of understanding of just how critically important the inner bulkhead is to the overall strength of the ship. You see they weren’t needed on the scale models so the government insisted on saving that money and not having them inside the scale models. The material costs wouldn’t have been that much more, but the tool and die work would have added a large figure to the price tag,” Pol explained.

  “So it was a bad idea. I’m sorry, Pol,” his assistant said.

  “On the contrary it was a very good idea. Unfortunately, we lack the materials to make it work. Remember anything that we will use as a troop transport must be strong enough to carry safely the stress loads or we risk the death of every soul aboard. However, I like your battleship concept. Redesign it. Make it a battleship drone instead. One that can be operated from the Peacekeeper just as the small drones, but make it as large as possible with an inner bulkhead for structural stability. Arm it to the teeth. Plan to install bombs, miniguns fore and aft, and heavy lasers fore and aft. Give it two lift engines to carry that much weight. Present that set of plans to me. If it looks good, and the math works out, then we will present the idea to the council. Also have the figures ready for a time estimate, manpower requirements for the construction, and a storage facility,” Pol instructed.

  The two assistants left immediately to begin work on the revised drafts of the plan.

  Late in the afternoon of the next day, Pol and his two assistants presented the revised idea to the peacekeeper council. Jim was the first to respond when he asked, “Pol, can this really be done?”

  “It can indeed my friend. The math is correct. I can give you the specific mathematical formulas if you’d like to verify the numbers,” Pol stated with quiet assurance.

  “No thanks, Pol, that’s way over my head. I’m good at some things in life but if I have a weak spot in me, it’s engineering. If you are certain of your concept, then that’s all I need to know,” Jim replied.

  “Can the manufacturing process be accelerated?” Pete asked. “I mean of course if we supplied more manpower.”

  “Yes. Yes of course additional men would speed the process to a degree, but there are limits after which additional personnel will be irrelevant,” Pol explained.

  “Give us your best estimate, Pol,” Tim said soberly.

  “One month if we work in shifts and have people to lead each shift who really understand the process, but that is assuming the manpower will be there when we need the personnel,” Pol explained in confusion. He couldn’t understand the sudden interest in such speed of development.

  “But to do that you’d have to abandon the continued development of the other drones wouldn’t you?” Pete asked.

  “No, Pete. The standard drones already have their batteries and the lasers are ready for mounting as are the guidance systems and the communications systems. In a week, I can have those finished. The first week of the battleship manufacturing process would be the assembly of the skeletal structure, the inner bulkhead, and the outer hull. That would require my presence only a couple of hours a day,” Pol responded. “Remember that despite its size it is still just a drone. That means there is no need to consider human comfort and needs, and that translates into time saved in the process.”

  “Get started on it immediately, Pol,” Jim stated and the other two council members nodded their agreement.

  “And, Pol, the battleship takes precedent over the other drones if it comes down to a choice,” Pete stated quietly.

  “Let’s show them why they will be working so hard to prepare the battleship at break neck speed,” Tim suggested.

  Jim reluctantly nodded his agreement with that decision.

  “They have a right to know why I’ll be breathing down their necks when the deadline is near,” Pete agreed.

  Jim turned to Patricia and said, “Play the message for them.”

  Patricia nodded and a moment later, she spun her monitor around so that Pol and his assistants could see the screen. They saw a man sitting in a chair facing them. The man was wearing a golden circlet around his forehead. He said, “Greetings peacekeepers. This is King Tomas the First. I am contacting you to let you know that I have established a kingdom in Kansas. That kingdom is under my protection and my rule. As of today, all roads leading into my kingdom have been sealed. Our airspace is protected by the might of our air power,” he said and the scene shifted to an airport where the man stood observing as predator drones were taking off. In the background hovered several attack helicopters.

  The scene shifted back to Tom in his chair and he continued. “You peacekeepers aren’t needed here. As you can see, my subjects are devoted to me,” he bragged. The scene once more shifted to large groups of men and women working in the fields. They were tending large crops under the watchful eyes of their King’s armed guards. The scene shifted again, to what appeared to be a very nice hotel setting. Two house cleaners scrubbed industriously at a stain on a carpet. They glanced up and smiled for the camera, but their eyes were red from crying and they both had bruises on their faces.

  Once more, the scene shifted to Tom as he warned, “Stay out of my kingdom peacekeepers. You aren’t needed or wanted here and we are prepared to deal harshly with even the slightest of incursions.”

  The scene shifted once more and a group of people driving down a road stopped at a checkpoint at the state border. A man got out of the car and approached the blockade. The driver got into an argument with the guards. He was gesturing toward an area past them on the Kansas side of the border. The man returned to his car and tried to drive past the blockade and his automobile was riddled with automatic weapons fire. All three men in the vehicle were killed. The scene shifted back to Tom. “No one enters our kingdom without our permission, and no one has permission to leave our kingdom. So leave us in peace. I don’t care what you do in the rest of the country, but Kansas is mine. The penalty for flying into my airspace or otherwise trespassing is death. Ignore that warning at your own peril,” he said, once more the scene shifted, and Tom stood beside a man and a woman. They were both tied up.

  “Pause it, Patricia,” Jim
said.

  “Yes, Jim,” Patricia replied and Pol thought it odd that she would address him so informally on the control deck. Patricia always maintained a professional demeanor with Jim in the control room, despite the fact that she was his sister-in-law.

  “Thank you,” Jim said and then he added. “I’m going to the galley for a cup of coffee. Call me when the message concludes if you please.” Without another word, Jim left.

  Patricia watched with compassion in her eyes as Jim left the room and his brother followed in his wake. Pete remained and when the two other men had disappeared from sight Pete said softly, “Please resume the briefing, Patricia.”

  “These two peacekeepers were caught inside our border this morning,” Tom said. Again, the video paused.

  “Pete, may I be dismissed?” Patricia asked and Pol noted that she was struggling to keep from crying.

  “Dismissed, Lieutenant. Wait with Jim and Tim. I’ll call you back soon,” Pete responded.

  “Pete…,” Bill Young began.

  “Dismissed, Bill,” Pete said with compassion in his own eyes. Nodding his thanks Bill also left the room. Pol now noted that the door guard had turned to face the closed door of the ship so that he wouldn’t have to see what was about to transpire.

  “Ready gentlemen?” Pete asked. The three men nodded that they were ready, though by now all three had serious misgivings about what they were about to see.

  “The price for trespassing is high,” Tom said and then he nodded to his men who grabbed the woman roughly and forced her to the ground as she struggled. The man screamed in rage and Pol recognized him as Robert the truck driver who’d married Lina. Only then did he recognize Lina, whose face had been so bruised and swollen as to make her unrecognizable to him. The guards stripped her clothing cutting the ropes, not caring if they also cut her flesh in the process. The man tied to a steel post struggled to break the ropes holding him. Blood trickled from his wrists from the chaffing of the tough fibers of the rope but he persisted in his struggle to escape and help his wife.